Touch to Talk by Amerley Ollennu, Psychologies Magazine

Recognising how connected our minds and bodies really are, a new breed of therapists use the power of speech to enrich their body therapy offerings.

Masseuse and psychotherapist Andrea Maria Lucas weaves together her understanding of the body and the psyche to redefine massage. Lucas feels ‘alternative therapies often fail to consider mental and emotional health and talking therapies need to address the body’ – her aim is to bridge the gap.

Lucas points out that there is much more going on than the needs of the muscle tissue, and that the physical, emotional, spiritual and energetic aspects need to be considered. She pays close attention to what her clients’ bodies require. ‘Our life experiences leave traces, which build up “armouring” in muscles and tissues as well as psychological defences. Depression, anxiety, intestinal disorders and headaches are all felt in the muscle tissue or fascia as tension or tight knots,’ says Lucas.
As the body holds what the mind can’t bear knowing and feeling, Lucas focuses her treatments on areas of tension, trying to unblock those areas in order to reconnect the energy flow, helping her clients complete their emotional cycle and create real improvement in the way they feel.

Whether you want to become more emotionally intelligent or you’re not quite ready to talk about the way you feel, these fusion treatments may well bring you closer to the answer you’ve been looking for. And with no prescription pad in sight, they can’t hurt.

“Any relationship that involves touching means you have already given someone permission to enter your personal space, making it easier to get things off your chest”